229 villages now free from communist rebels, says military

MANILA, Philippines—Close to a year after the military’s stepped-up drive against communist armed threats, 229 barangays have been cleared of insurgency, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

These villages across the country have been “liberated” from insurgents, while 1,062  barangays have remained to be affected by armed rebels, said Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr.

The areas still affected by insurgency were mostly  found in Eastern Mindanao and Southern Luzon, Burgos added.

On January 1, the military implemented the Internal Peace and Security  Plan Bayanihan, which replaced Oplan Bantay Laya. It was a shift “from  a militaristic into a people-centered approach to ‘win the peace’  rather than defeat the enemy.”

Meanwhile, Burgos also said that a total of 341 communists rebels were  either “brought in the bar of justice or returned to the government  fold” also this year.